Popcorn

The popcorn industry measures its product in three ways: the volume of the flake relative to its unpopped mass, the percentage of popped kernels, and the amount of popcorn that can be harvested per acre. In the past half century, thanks to rigorous breeding, all three of those numbers have increased dramatically. Indeed, popcorn ranks among the greatest agronomic successes of the 20th century. Today the best popcorn pops twice as big as the popcorn of 50 years ago and leaves as little as one-fourth as many unpopped kernels, called old maids.

Kenneth Ziegler, who until February ran the country's last academic popcorn breeding facility, at Iowa State University, says the variations are natural. "Popcorn is a biological entity. Anything goes." Each kernel of popcorn is an "individual pressure cooker," Ziegler says. As the kernel heats up, a small amount of water trapped inside the hull vaporizes, turning the starchy guts of the kernel into a molten mass. When the pressure inside is great enough, the kernel explodes, shattering its pericarp like a shrapnel grenade. The gelatinous starch instantaneously solidifies as it leaves its shell.

Over the past few years, scientists like Paul Quinn have applied themselves to the task of creating bigger, tastier popcorn flakes, but their results can be maddeningly inconsistent. In 1999 a pair of Indian researchers found that microwaving popcorn in 10 percent oil, 2 percent butter, and 0.5 percent salt produced the largest flakes (that translates to about a teaspoon of oil, a fifth of a teaspoon of butter, and a pinch of salt for every quarter of a cup of kernels). More recently, Turkish food scientists Ersan Karababa and Mehmet Ceylan found the optimal mix contained eight times as much butter and almost half as much oil. Four years ago, a group at California State University at Long Beach claimed that the biggest flakes spring from kernels with a moisture content of 11 percent. Last year, Sabri Gökmen, another Turkish cerealist, demonstrated that the optimal moisture level was 14 percent. Researchers also argue over which popping method—stove top, microwave, or air popper—produces the biggest flakes. But since some kernels are bred specifically for the inside-out cooking of the microwave while others are naturally suited to stove-top popping, this can be like comparing apples and oranges.

Taken from Discover